News Week of April 28, 2002

Your Next Notebook

�While you won't see branded Tablet PCs for sale until this fall, prototypes are trickling into Microsoft headquarters, where Leland Rockoff and other members of the Tablet PC team are �bug bashing� them. Rockoff, director of marketing and business development, is just as giddy as Gates about the Tablet PC's potential: �We see this as the evolution of the laptop�the most portable PC ever made.� (Source: Leslie Ayers of Ziff Davis Smart Business)
Posted Friday, May 3, 2002 by ChrisC
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Papering Over the Computer Myth

A �pro-paper� article from the Times of London mentioning Tablet PC.

�Microsoft, however, believes that the launch of its Tablet PC later this year will begin to reduce people�s reliance on paper. The Tablet PC resembles an electronic clipboard, similar to a handheld computer, on which users can write notes with a stylus pen. The Tablet software will even translate a writer�s scrawl into computer text that can then be sent to a standard PC.�

�But old habits die hard. As Microsoft�s David Bennie freely admits, his desk is not entirely clear of piles of documents...�

The Tablet Also Rises

Encouraging signs of life in the beleaguered e-book industry:

• On June 17, Watergate coconspirator John Dean will publish THE DEEP THROAT BRIEF as an e-book via Salon.com.
  
• In August, Simon & Schuster will publish the complete works of Ernest Hemingway as e-books. Each of the 23 titles will retail for $9.99.

Gates: Tablet will improve e-gov

�If the tablet works as Gates envisions, this handheld computer could save forests of paper and eliminate many paper-based processes. Using handwriting-recognition software developed for more than a decade by Microsoft Corp., the tablet computer will make activities such as note-taking and reading long documents highly portable and comfortable, Gates said, and the material will be entirely digital. The value of getting portable PCs into users' hands � as opposed to their desktops � will be significant, Gates told a gathering of international e-government officials attending a Microsoft conference in Seattle April 17.�

�I'm dying to use the tablet PC,� Gates said. �There you get the best of both worlds.� In addition to making long documents easier to read in digital formats, the tablet lets users attach notes, search and perform other PC functions, he said. (Source: William Matthews, Federal Computer Week)
Posted Sunday, April 28, 2002 by ChrisC
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Arming the 'corridor warrior'

Michelle Speir of Federal Computer Week takes a look at ViewSonic's ViewPad 1000...

�As workers demand more mobility from their computing products, vendors are answering the call with products that fit ever more niches. One of the latest trends is the tablet PC. Tablets combine the mobility of a personal digital assistant with the functionality of a notebook. As with PDAs, tablets can be used anywhere, including while standing or walking. But thanks to their larger size, they can incorporate many more features; some even offer full PC functionality. However, they are still lighter than most notebooks.�

�One of the current tablet PC offerings is the ViewPad 1000 from ViewSonic Corp. With an 800 MHz Intel Corp. Mobile Celeron processor, Microsoft Corp. Windows 2000 and a 10.4-inch full-color thin-film transistor display with 800 x 600 resolution, this tablet offers PC functionality in a highly portable design measuring 12.2 inches by 8.9 inches by 1.4 inches.�
Posted Sunday, April 28, 2002 by ChrisC
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Office .NET Screendumps

Something new called Scribbler. Wonder if Ink or Tablet PC related? :) Paul Thurrott of Wininformant.com seems to think so...saying Scribbler is �probably related to the Tablet PC.�
Posted Sunday, April 28, 2002 by ChrisC
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